RuneQuest

by Steve Perrin

the chaosium 1979 1st. ed

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Gaming, Games

119 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1978

Reviews

[Terence · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the many RPGs my friends and I bought but never actually played in the misspent days of our youth (and, to be brutally honest, it was my mother who "bought" them until I was old enough to hold down a job).

I give Runequest a 4-star rating not for its game mechanics (obviously) but for its effort to create a non-medieval, non-Western European world to adventure in that wasn't overly beholden to any other culture but built its own, unique vision.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

RuneQuest, by Chaosium, is probably the single best RPG book I've ever read or used. It is not without flaws and ambiguities, but I still run RuneQuest campaigns, and have done so for many years. The "Basic Role Playing System" by Chaosium eliminated the Dungeons & Dragons character classes and alignment system which always felt like bizarre constrictions on what was ultimately meant to be a free-form fantasy style of play. RuneQuest characters were defined instead by their physical attributes (like Dungeons & Dragons) and the skills they chose to study and train (unlike Dungeons & Dragons). The result was that a player could decide to have an eclectic mix of skills, unconstrained by artificial notions of what "fighters" did as opposed to "wizards." The combat system bears special note for its realism, though it comes at the cost of speed of play. The authors note that the combat system is largely derived from early SCA combat, and it shows, in isolating hit locations on a target, as opposed to the Dungeons & Dragons method of attacking an undifferentiated wad of "hit points" (or health, for the uninitiated).

The supplements, such as Pavis, Big Rubble, Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, TrollPak, Griffin Mountain, and Borderlands, are all classics, and most have recently been reprinted. The supplements have a mixture of narrative storyline with linked adventures and stand-alone encounters, a consistently high quality of writing and imagination shown in devising a cohesive fantasy world, and the (unique for its time) notion that individual gods would have politically divided cults and pantheons of associated divine forces.

[Tulpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the book is poorly laid out and some of the mechanics are outdated or poorly structured, the game itself is still wonderful. It helps that it is closely tied to one of the best game settings ever devised, the inestimable Glorantha. Talking cartoon ducks who worship the god who wields Death as a sword? Sure. Walktopuses? Yes. Bears with halloween pumpkins for heads? Absolutely. One of the most in-depth, realistic portrayals of mythology? Yes.

Just reading it again makes me want to join a game immediately.

Regarding the actual mechanics: I've never been keen on the percentile system of Chaosium's RPGs. It always felt clunky and time-consuming. It always looks more intimidating than it is. But, I do like the old advancement system present here (even if it could be easily streamlined with the same mathematical odds of advancement), wherein if you use a skill in a way that some risk is involved, you put a check next to it and roll to see if it increases during downtime. The probability curve is such that the better you are at something, the less likely you are to get better. I like this, it feels naturalistic and doesn't rely on any meta-currencies like experience points or skill points.

I also like the way initiative is handled, with Strike Ranks. It gives the proceedings a somewhat deterministic, almost tactical quality even with all of the dice rolling involved. There are ways today that I would improve it or houserule it, and even the 3rd Edition did a lot to improve the mechanics, but nonetheless it's an innovative system that manages to truly differentiate weapons and characters without relying on countless charts and graphs.

[Eternalaeon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This system achieves a ton of what I have been looking for in the customization of other RPG systems.

[Arthur B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply the greatest fantasy RPG core rulebook ever released in the hobby's first decade. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...

[Hans Otterson]

That such a strong whacked-out hippie vision of mythology came married to such clear, idiosyncratic, and playable procedures, in 1978 no less, is wild. Totally going to play this.

[Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

No, no es nostalgia.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first RPGS I ever played and still the best with it's 'realistic' combat system freely available magic and lack of character classes it provides a much less restrictive system than D&D. Plus it has anthropomorphic ducks!

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only game that back in the day gave Dungeons and Dragons a run for it's money. Full of tribal shamanism and alternative magics, Glorantha is a very fascinating (and often scary) place.

[Bruce Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is still a classic RPG - it ages very well.